Dew on the sunflower
by smaragdbird
Summary: Valentine's day had once again arrived and with it the near futile search for roses in the Pegasus galaxy even when there are even prettier flowers


Daylight, see the dew on the sunflower

And the rose that is fading

Memory – Cats, the musical

'Good morning, Kate.' Teyla greeted her friend, breakfast tray in her hand. It was early morning on Atlantis and Kate usually ate breakfast with Teyla. It had developed at the beginning of the last year, when McKay had still been asleep by the time Teyla got up and Sheppard had already been on his morning run. Things hadn't changed that much over the past year Rodney still slept in but John now went running with Ronon.

'Good morning Teyla.' Kate looked up from her breakfast to look at Teyla. Teyla was always a sight to behold, beautiful by earth-standards but there was more to it, mostly in the way she moved; gracefully and completely at ease in her own body again. There had been a time last year when that hadn't been the case. After discovering she had Wraith DNA in her body it had been obvious, at least to Kate, that Teyla had lost something of that ease and was happy for her friend that she had found it again.

'Kate, what is the meaning of roses on Earth, especially on a special day called Valentine?' Teyla asked. Kate bit back a sigh. Personally she loved Valentine's day, the excuse to be as romantic and cheesy as possible but professionally it was a nightmare especially here on Atlantis: separation from loved ones on Earth, crushes on aliens or co-workers or fellow soldiers, the ever present fear of losing someone to the Wraith or, in case of being an US soldier, now that they had contact with Earth again, to the DADT policy. On the other hand it was sometimes amusing to see six foot two mountains of muscle revert into 13 year old school girls.

'Valentine's Day is a day on Earth where we celebrate love. Red roses are typically associated with love and often given as a gift on that day.' Kate explained: ''Often either to someone who already is your partner or to someone you have romantic feelings for and wish to let them know.'

Teyla nodded understandingly:

'My people have a similar day on Athos. We call it Baro. Many couples celebrate their union on this day as it is supposed to bring luck for the relationship.'

Kate toyed with a bit of her egg around her plate, and then asked:

'Just out of curiosity what brought this on?'

'Colonel Sheppard asked Ronon if he knew a planet where he could get roses since I didn't knew any last year.'

Kate successfully hid her smile. She knew very well who Colonel Sheppard was thinking off and wished him good look even if would probably need some explaining to the other person what Valentine was and the meaning of roses.

'But Ronon didn't know any. They're rare flowers here in Pegasus.' Teyla continued: 'Very tedious from what I was told by the Genii, when we still had contact with the Genii. Do you like roses?'

'My mother grew white, yellow and dark red roses in our garden with lavender and forget-me-nots. I don't find them romantic, no my favourite flowers are sunflowers.'

'They are beautiful.' Teyla agreed: 'And they make a good addition to bread.'

'You have them on the mainland, don't you?'

'People grow them everywhere. On Balas they managed to cultivate a sunflower in a wonderful dark blue, they call it Twilight flower.'

'I think Lorne's team brought one back for the botany department.' Kate remembered how excited Parrish had been and how Lorne had blushed when in Parrish had hugged him. Maybe, if Sheppard was successful finding roses, he could give Lorne one or two.

Kate looked at her watch:

'I have to go. I'll see you later?'

'Of course.' Teyla smiled her beautiful, blinding smile and Kate readied herself for a day filled with the problems and heartbreak of other people.

'Kate, it is a surprise.' Teyla explained patiently when she led her friend through the halls of Atlantis. Kate would have liked to point out that she, like everyone else on this expedition, hated surprises. Surprises usually meant that something bad was happening: Wraith, Genii or Ancient technology with no manual anywhere, but Teyla seemed to vibrate with joy and excitement, so Kate kept her mouth shut.

She was surprised to see Sergeant Stackhouse waiting for them at a jumper and guessed:

'We're flying to the mainland?'

'I see that you have many questions about my people and thought that you would like to see it firsthand. Elizabeth said it would be okay to spend the night before our rest day tomorrow away from Atlantis.' Teyla said with a hopeful expression on her face.

'I…Thank you, Teyla.' Teyla took both of Kate's hands in hers and touched her forehead to Kate's in the traditional Athosian greeting.

During the flight the level of comfortableness between Teyla and Sergeant Stackhouse showed that they had done this often enough. Kate knew that Stackhouse often visited the mainland since the expedition had arrived in Atlantis and him and Halling had become friends during the brief time Halling had been on Stackhouse's team.

Then Kate reminded herself that she was off-duty until the day after tomorrow and relaxed while listening to the easy conversation between Teyla and Stackhouse.

The mainland smelled and felt different than Atlantis. Here the ocean breeze mixed with the smell of the forest and the sounds of a human settlement.

After the greetings Stackhouse took off with Halling and Kate followed Teyla who went here and there, talking with people, friends, admiring the winter seed and listened to news of the game in the forest. When they had made their round through the village, meeting Stackhouse and Halling's brother Misha who were listening intently to whatever Halling was telling them. Kate shortly had the cute impression of two kids hearing an adventure story. When she heard Teyla snicker she thought that maybe she wasn't so wrong with that.

Kate and Teyla sat down by a fire not far from them, stretching out on skins someone had laid out there. Kate felt pleasantly exhausted and looked forward to spend the next day here. She crossed her arms behind her head and tilted her head slightly so that she could watch Teyla who watched Halling telling his story.

Kate felt tempted to reach out and touch her. Teyla's normally so calm and collected aura for the lack of a better word, was emphasized by the warm firelight. It gave the impression of her being soft and warm. Kate shook her head. She sounded like cheap poetry.

She had to have dozed off at one point because when she woke up again the fire had burnt down and someone had draped a blanket over her. Someone shook her arm lightly:

'Good morning Kate.' Teyla smiled: 'Can you come with me? I want to show you something.' Kate scrambled to her feet with a lot less grace than Teyla did and followed her out of the settlement along the coast. The sun hadn't begun to rise yet and the whole world was tinted in a pre-dawn grey that made it look like someone had washed the colours out of the fabric of the world; and she really had to listen more to what Lorne was telling her and not to the admittedly very poetic words he used when he talked to her.

At one point Teyla had taken Kate's hand to guide her more easily through the landscape until they walked around a few cliffs and suddenly stood in front of a field of sunflowers.

'Did your people did this' Kate gasped in wonder.

'No, they already grew here when we came here.' Teyla stood behind her and slipped her arms around Kate's waist:

'Look.' And Kate watched as red, orange, yellow and pink floated back into the world with the sunrise. Even Lorne's poetic words couldn't do justice to this or maybe she simply didn't remember enough of them to put them in any sentence to describe the sheer and untarnished beauty that unfolded itself before her eyes. She was captivated by the magnificence of the sight in front of her and at the same acutely aware of Teyla's arms around her and Teyla's breath against her cheek.

'Happy Holiday.' Teyla whispered and when Kate turned her head she kissed her and tasted like warmth and beauty and sunflower seeds.


End file.
